A scanning acoustic microscope may be used to produce scanned images of objects (which may be otherwise referred to herein as “samples”) using ultrasound. In some scanning acoustic microscopes, the sample is held in place in a tank of fluid and insonified with pulses of ultrasound from a transmitting transducer at a number of locations in a scan pattern. To this end, a fixture is generally used to hold the sample in place.
A scanning acoustic microscope may thus be used to scan samples of different sizes and shapes, where a custom fixture is typically needed for each different sample. Therefore, a scanning acoustic microscope system or a user thereof may require many different fixtures, and changing from one custom fixture to another, which can reduce the time available for scanning as the fixtures are replaced and interchanged.
There remains a need for a fixture capable of holding samples of different sizes and shapes, e.g., to be inspected and scanned by a scanning acoustic microscope.